NOVEL NEXT Chapter 87: Can You Memorize It?
Become a cultivator.
Xie Ruoxi had never considered such a thing.
Last night, she had even thought about the plot where if she couldn't resist the temptation of being kept by Yan Zhanlong, got pregnant, and then suddenly reformed and ran away with the child—that was the most exaggerated scenario she could come up with.
But even that wasn't as crazy as "becoming a cultivator."
"I..." Xie Ruoxi's breathing quickened, "are you saying that I can also..."
"I don't know," Yan Yu said lightly, "We need to confirm, so I'm asking your intentions first."
"Of course, I'd like to!" Xie Ruoxi exclaimed eagerly, almost on the verge of tears, about to kneel on the ground, "Master, please accept Ruoxi's bow! "
"Hold on!" Yan Yu was also shocked by her peculiar thoughts and quickly stopped her, "Have you been reading too many of those teacher-student romance novels?! It's the state that wants to train you to become a cultivator, not me taking you as a disciple!"
"Oh, oh, oh." Xie Ruoxi did indeed have a moment (she swore it was just a fleeting thought) when she had gone off on a tangent about the popular teacher-student romance theme in cultivation novels. Now that Yan Yu had mercilessly pointed it out, she instantly turned red with embarrassment and humbly said, "I'm fine with that, I'll follow your arrangements."
Yan Yu realized this treasure of a girl, although not yet a beautiful waste, was naturally prone to whimsical and erratic thoughts, so he sighed helplessly and continued,
"The state's recruitment channels for cultivators have already closed, so we'll need to use some special connections. The premise is that you absolutely cannot publicize this, understand? Otherwise, even if you have the talent for cultivation, this will fall through."
"Mmm-hmm-hmm!" Xie Ruoxi thought to herself that she was familiar with this scenario, like when the overbearing CEO forces the heroine to sign a marriage contract, he would always threaten her with 'you can't tell anyone'... My mouth can be very tight, zipped up."
"Alright then," Yan Yu nodded with satisfaction, "Let's sign a labor contract first, and then I will test your talent."
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However, it should be mentioned that Yan somehow had always been opposed to the proliferation of civilian cultivators, and he had never been hypocritical about it from the start.
But the emphasis here is on the word "proliferation."
It's impossible to completely ban civilian cultivators, just as it's impossible for the Yellow River to easily stop flowing.
Yan Yu's viewpoint stood between the conservatives and the radicals. He believed that the state should control the scale of civilian cultivators as much as possible, allowing a gradual expansion, but not exceeding the administrative capacity—the quantity of controllable civilian cultivators should be increased step-by-step, considering the society's capacity to accommodate them.
Controllable civilian cultivators, officially called "registered cultivators," pose much less danger than "non-registered cultivators." After all, most people have parents. If you commit a crime outside, the court immediately informs your parents, and many people rein themselves in just thinking about that.
What he really opposed was Chen Family's attitude of "if you can't control it, completely let go, let everyone cultivate freely and let natural selection take its course," that was truly deadly.
Xie Ruoxi, due to a stroke of fate, stepped onto the path of cultivation in her previous life. In theory, she had become a civilian cultivator, but in reality, she was a homebody who rarely left her house. Such civilian cultivators, though unregistered, posed virtually zero threat to society.
Moreover, in this life, Yan Yu intended to register her with the Zhendong Army early on, so she would no longer be counted as a civilian cultivator.
I, Yan Yu, am a man of principle!
He went to retrieve the introductory textbooks issued at the start of school from the dormitory, then picked up some cash on the way home. Only then did Yan Yu leisurely walk back.
Arriving home and opening the door, he saw Xie Ruoxi sitting stiffly on the living room sofa, not daring to move.
"Follow me," Yan Yu commanded.
The villa had a vast basement, originally designed to serve as a parking garage, which was later converted into a training ground by Chen Lingyun for future secretive training sessions.
Such as refining ghosts and the like.
Yan Yu brought a chair from the underground training room and gestured for Xie Ruoxi to sit, then handed her the textbook he was carrying.
Xie Ruoxi stared blankly at the book in her hands: "Essential Outline of Cultivation."
"Read it through," Yan Yu instructed with an indisputable tone, "Memorize the sections on acupoints and Qi Refinement without missing a word. I'll test you later."
"Eh?" Xie Ruoxi finally reacted, exclaiming, "Eh, eh, eh, eh!"
"What is it?"
"Weren't you going to test my cultivation aptitude?" Xie Ruoxi asked in panic, "Isn't it about taking me in front of a testing stone, where I place my hand on it, and it automatically announces my aptitude level and Cultivation Realm?"
"You should read fewer web novels, okay?" Yan Yu showed a speechless expression, "First master this textbook completely, then we'll see if you can refine True Qi. That will tell us about your talent. Having True Qi means you can, not having it means you can't, everything is result-oriented."
"But..." Xie Ruoxi said with a wry smile, "But memorizing stuff like that, I'm not good at it. And the acupoints and Qi Refinement sections make up three big chapters, that's so many words..."
Yan Yu expressionlessly picked up the leather bag beside him, took out a stack of crisp, new hundred-yuan notes that were redolent of ink, and without a shred of pity, tossed them into her arms:
"Can you memorize it or not?"
"This isn't about money, okay?" Xie Ruoxi protested.
Yan Yu coldly took out another bundle of banknotes and waved it in front of her a few times before roughly smashing it into her embrace:
"Now, can you memorize it or not?"
"I'm not lying to you." Xie Ruoxi said weakly, "I'm really not good at memorizing things…"
Yan Yu turned the leather bag upside down above her head and shook it hard, letting the cash fall down forcefully, giving Xie Ruoxi a harsh shower of banknotes –– washing her into a daze, her eyes lifeless, as if the sudden windfall had damaged her brain.
"There's two hundred thousand here." He said with a devilishly tempting voice, "I'll give you one last chance: can you memorize it? If you can remember it, if you learn it, it's all yours."
"Two hundred thousand? All of it for me?"
"All of it for you."
"I'll memorize it!" Xie Ruoxi clenched her teeth.
Two hundred thousand in cash, enough not just for her to attend university, but even as a dowry to buy her back for her parents… How many private tutoring jobs would she have to take on to save up two hundred thousand!
Seeing her begin to study, Yan Yu didn't leave, but simply sat down by her side and leisurely started reading a novel himself.
Xie Ruoxi noticed he seemed to be reading a web novel too and really wanted to ask what book he was reading, if they liked the same genres and authors… but then she thought of the two hundred thousand!
Better to earn money… ah, no, studying is more important!
Seeing Xie Ruoxi seemingly start studying seriously, Yan Yu might have appeared to be preoccupied with his phone screen, but his mind was filled with doubts.
He stayed in the basement not out of a desire to be with Xie Ruoxi, but because his portrayal as a beautiful loser in his previous life was simply too horrifying, demanding caution.
It was said that during one military campaign, as the team leader, she overslept on the day they were set to depart. Why did she oversleep? Because she had been up all night playing video games.
The Annan Army headquarters were so infuriated they issued a directive for all major gaming companies to ban Xie Ruoxi's accounts, blocking her phone number, ID number, and internet IP from any gaming services forever.
With such waste as Xie Ruoxi, even with all the patience in the world, it was hard for Yan Yu to believe she would actually study earnestly.
Supervision! I must supervise personally!
About ten minutes later, Yan Yu went upstairs to get takeout, then came down and shared it with Xie Ruoxi as dinner.
"Yan Yu." Xie Ruoxi asked curiously, "You used to eat takeout too?"
"Otherwise?" Yan Yu split a pair of disposable chopsticks and handed them to her, casually asking back.
"You live in such a big villa; I thought you'd hire a private chef." Xie Ruoxi said admiringly while tasting the sautéed chicken and immediately exclaimed, "This is so good!"
"I'm not an aristocrat, why hire a private chef?" Yan Yu said nonchalantly, "With money, the most I'd do is order expensive takeout without considering the cost, but my quality of life hasn't improved that much."
"Heh, that's probably because you don't really know how to spend money." Xie Ruoxi probed, watching his facial expression.
"I might not know how to spend money, but I know how to use people." Yan Yu ferociously grabbed bites of the sautéed chicken, nonstop, "That's enough for me."
"Hey! Don't eat it all yourself, save some for me." Seeing that Yan Yu really didn't act like a boss, Xie Ruoxi grew bolder and even began to fight him for the food.
Their chopsticks clashed in a fight for the dishes, and they cleaned up all the meals. Xie Ruoxi patted her little stomach, her heart content as she nodded and swayed, smiling:
"All filled up, so happy~"
"What, couldn't you get enough to eat before?" Yan Yu looked at her sidelong and asked.
"Photography has irregular hours." Xie Ruoxi answered, "If a job comes in while you're eating and you can't get there in time, someone else snatches it up."
"That's why I said, that profession has no future for you." Yan Yu chuckled, and said, "Better study hard, aim to become a cultivator as soon as possible."
"Oh." Xie Ruoxi set the book aside and suddenly said, "I haven't started memorizing yet, just read it through once and then practiced it a bit, and it seemed like I managed to produce flowing Qi. Can you check it for me?"
Yan Yu: ?